What is a Pop-Up Restaurant?

Pop-up restaurants have gained popularity in the food industry, seeing a 105% increase between April 2022-March 2023 vs. April 2021-March 2022. They offer something for everyone: chefs love the creative freedom, owners and managers benefit from the opportunity to test and learn and customers are captivated by the short-term appeal and fun food concepts. If you’re considering opening a pop-up restaurant, here’s what you need to know.

Pop-Up Restaurants: What You Need to Know

A pop-up restaurant is an interim event designed to showcase culinary talents at a temporary location. It’s typically hosted in an existing restaurant, bar, abandoned business, building rooftop, etc. Some establishments will even open shared commissary kitchen spaces where restaurant food is only accessible by ordering online or through an app. How long a pop-up restaurant sticks around is up to the operator. The main idea is to make your mark but leave soon enough so you can make room for other pop-ups.

Pop-up restaurants tie their history back to the 1920s and 30s, when they were temporary “supper clubs” during prohibition.

Pros and Cons of a Pop-Up Restaurant

Pop-up restaurants have a lot of advantages over permanent restaurants. Unfortunately, there are also some downsides. Before you consider opening a pop-up restaurant, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons.

Pros of a Pop-Up Restaurant

• Ideal test environment – It’s an affordable way to do a “test kitchen” that is detached from an established restaurant. It can introduce new ghost menu items and experiment with them while keeping the pop-up disassociated from the restaurant until they’re certain it will work.


• Good for growing chefs – It’s a relatively inexpensive way for a chef to get their name out and start establishing themselves and their work in the industry or in a new area.


• Brings the best chefs in one kitchen – Chefs from different restaurants can cook together. This is great for a one-off event that patrons can get excited about and provides them with an opportunity to share knowledge and techniques.

Cons of a Pop-Up Restaurant

• High-stress setting – The cost can be offset by the need to have a full staff make a good impression. A pop-up restaurant should be looked at more as a promotional measure than a way to bring in extra income.


• Size and capacity limits – There’s a hard cap on the number of people that can be present at a time due to small rentals or locations, and you’ll often find there’s more interest than you can accommodate.